An election official in northwest Iowa is one of two Iowans appointed to a bipartisan national council that was created by the 2002 Help America Vote Act.
“It is a collaboration of all states in the United States for election administration ideas, communication through that council to go back to federal level in who decides, you know, different governing rules over elections and that type of thing, so I’m honored to be a part of it,” Emmet County Auditor Heidi Goebel said.
Regional meetings are held monthly by Zoom. “We bounce ideas back and forth, you know, how different state election laws dictate the election administration’s response to a situation, that type of thing,” Goebel said. “so it’s a lot of brainstorming of ideas.”
Sara Doty, the Des Moines County Auditor, is the other Iowan who’s on the council. The group’s annual in-person meeting is scheduled to be held in Philadelphia next April. The Local Leadership Council is also set up to advise the four-member U.S. Election Assistance Commission, but one of the Republicans on the panel resigned in April and in July President Trump fired the other Republican and the two Democrats who were on the commission.
(Reporting by Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville)